HIGHLINER, TRAVELER, STORYTELLER

Using slacklining to connect people

Crossing Borders, Crossing Lines

Sonya co-founded Crossing Lines in 2013 to use the striking imagery of highlining to change the conversation about the Middle East. In 2014, she led the first Crossing Lines project in Iran where the Iranian and American team established new highlines and hosted the first Iranian international highline festival. She is currently organizing the second Crossing Lines festival which will be hosted in Lebanon in 2018 with many of the best highliners in the world and a team of photographers, and videographers.

When the travel ban was announced in January 2017, Sonya began a new Crossing Lines initiative to use slacklining to change how we see and talk about refugees. Slacklining builds balance, coordination, and confidence and can alleviate symptoms of psychological stress and trauma. The Crossing Lines team is currently teaching slacklining to refugee kids in Lebanon and the U.S. through local partners to aid in social integration and community development, to provide a playful physical education experience, and to create striking media to influence public perception of refugees.

Sonya is a digital nomad and works as a freelance biotech consultant while building the Crossing Lines projects.

In the Slackline Community

Sonya began a community slackline website, SlackLink.org in 2011 which lead to her increased participation in the development of the slackline community worldwide. In 2015, she founded Slackline U.S., a national non-profit slackline advocacy organization and leads the organization as the president of the executive board. She was also part of the development of the International Slackline Association and continues to be a member of the executive board.

For the past four years, she has devoted more than 500 hours a year to non-profit slackline efforts to promote safe and sustainable development of slacklining as the sport grows rapidly.

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Slackliners taught

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Countries visited

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Visa Stamps

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Non-profit leadership roles

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Months on the road

Speaker, Writer, Storyteller

Sonya is currently traveling around the U.S. and Europe speaking about Crossing Lines, teaching slacklining and highlining, helping to organize slackline festivals, and writing about slacklining and science.